Blog Action Day - Discussing Poverty & the Poor

"Remember the poor, it costs nothing" -- Josh Billings

... For 60 days I've been posting money quotations on Poverty and the Poor in preparation for this one day - Blog Action Day - Poverty - where over 9000 bloggers have agreed to discuss, explore and seek solutions to poverty. (Even the MySpace Impact Channel got into the Poverty conversation on their blog

My decision to support #BAD08, as it's come to be called on Twitter, was out of a desire to continue expanding my collection of Money Quotes on this blog. But, inevitably I got more interested in the topic and in learning something about Poverty - through words - but not just blather, these are some of the most powerful words ever uttered about the Poor and Poverty.

In the two months since I started collecting and posting quotations, I found over 150 Poverty Quotes in the larger collection of quotes on the poor, Here are a dozen to get you started.

1. Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank said, "One day our grandchildren will go to museums to see what poverty was like" and truly believes we can cut global Poverty in HALF by 2015!
2. Most powerful quote on poverty from a politician IMHO was Dwight D. Eisenhower, who said in 1953, "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed"
3. Many politicians, as a matter of fact, had something to say of poverty - from Thomas Jefferson, "Experience demands that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich on the poor"
4. To Ronald Reagan, "Poverty is a career for lot's of well paid people"
5. There are those who devote their lives to the poor, "There is hunger for ordinary bread, and there is hunger for love, for kindness, for thoughtfulness; and this is the great poverty that makes people suffer so much" -- Mother Teresa
6. There are those who poke fun at poverty, "Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons." -- Woody Allen
7. Some believe it's sometimes better to be poor, "Satan is wiser now than before, and tempts by making rich instead of poor" -- Alexander Pope
8. Some flatly state the obvious, "I've been rich and I've been poor: Rich is better." -- Sophie Tucker
9. And even more obvious, "A rich man is nothing but a poor man with money." -- W.C. Fields
10. Some point out misconceptions "Literary tradition is full of lies about poverty—the jolly beggar, the poor but happy milkmaid, the wholesome diet of porridge, etc." -- Mason Cooley
11. There is the frightening commentary from Colin Powell, "Terrorism really flourishes in areas of poverty, despair and hopelessness, where people see no future"
12. And in the end, it really doesn't matter whether we are rich or poor, "Pale death with an impartial foot knocks at the hovels of the poor and the palaces of king" -- Horace

Blog Action Day 2008 Poverty from Blog Action Day on Vimeo.

Join the discussion, but don't stop there, decide to take action to end poverty, consider donating your day's earnings to the poor.

Man Who Makes Acquisitive Realize How Poor They Are

"Some day you will meet a man who cares for none of these things. Then you will know how poor you are." -- Rudyard Kipling

Politicians Subsidize Poverty & Failure Through Taxes

"The politicians don't just want your money. They want your soul. They want you to be worn down by taxes until you are dependent and helpless. When you subsidize poverty and failure, you get more of both" -- James Dale Davidson

Poor Can Create Poverty-Free World if Unchained

"The poor themselves can create a poverty-free world ... all we have to do is to free them from the chains that we have put around them" -- Muhammad Yunus

Our Economic & Social Institutions Created Poverty

"Poverty has been created by the economic and social system that we have designed for the world. It is the institutions that we have built and feel so proud of, which created poverty" -- Muhammad Yunus

We Can Create a Poverty Free World if We Want To

"I have come to believe, deeply and firmly, that we can create a poverty free world if we want to. I came to this conclusion not as a product of a pious dream, but as a concrete result of experience gained in the work of the Grameen Bank" -- Muhammad Yunus

Belief in Poverty Perpetuates Poverty: Choose Prosperity

"If we had believed that poverty is unacceptable to us, and that it should not belong to a civilized society, we would have created appropriate institutions and policies to create a poverty-free world" -- Muhammad Yunus

Search for Poor Entrepreneurs Banking Challenge

"I did something that challenged the banking world. Conventional banks look for the rich; we look for the absolutely poor. All people are entrepreneurs, but many don't have the opportunity to find that out" -- Muhammad Yunus

One Day Poverty Will Exist Only in Museums

"One day our grandchildren will go to museums to see what poverty was like" -- Muhammad Yunus

Make Game of Earning Money or Be Bound & Shackled

"We need to make a game out of earning money. There is so much good we can do with money. Without it, we are bound and shackled and our choices become limited" -- Bob Proctor

People of Poverty Who are Fun at the End of the Day

"In Africa, we were around thousands of people who have seen a lot of poverty, but they were fun at the end of the day" -- Angelina Jolie

Scarcity in Midst of Plenty, Skills Unused:Friedman

"My major problem with the world is a problem of scarcity in the midst of plenty ... of people starving while there are unused resources ... people having skills which are not being used" -- Milton Friedman

Fortunes Contentment as Poverty Reduces Expectations

"Thank God for poverty
That makes and keeps us free
And lets us go our unobtrusive way,
Glad of the sun and rain,
Upright, serene, humane,
Contented with the fortune of a day."
- William Bliss Carman,
The Word at Saint Kavin's

Poverty Reduces a Man's Responsibility to God

"In one important respect a man is fortunate in being poor. His responsibility to God is so much the less" -- Christian Nestell Bovee

Rich Wonder Why Poor Don't Ring the Dinner Bell

"Poverty is an anomaly to rich people; it is very difficult to make out why people who want dinner do not ring the bell" -- Walter Bagehot

Poverty Thwarts Men of Quality From Rising: Juvenal

"It is not easy for men to rise whose qualities are thwarted by poverty" -- Juvenal

Fear of Old Age Often a Fear of Poverty

“The most common cause of fear of old age is associated with the possibility of poverty” -- Napoleon Hill

A Man Isn't Poor If He Can Laugh: Raymond HItchcock

“A man isn't poor if he can still laugh.” -- Raymond Hitchcock

Poverty is Only Contemptible When You Make It So

"Poverty is only contemptible when it is felt to be so. Doubtless the best way to make our poverty respectable is to seem never to feel it as an evil" -- Christian Nestell Bovee

Poor Man Is Without A Dream Not One Lacking Money

“The poor man is not he who is without a cent, but he who is without a dream” -- Harry Kemp

Poor Parents Will Not Be Declared Insane By Children

“Another good thing about being poor is that when you are seventy your children will not have declared you legally insane in order to gain control of your estate” -- Woody Allen

Real poverty is lack of books: Sidonie Gabrielle

“Real poverty is lack of books” -- Sidonie Gabrielle

Love Conquers All But Poverty & Toothache: Mae West

“Love conquers all things except poverty and toothache” -- Mae West

Laziness is Soon Overtaken by Poverty: Ben Franklin

“Laziness travels so slowly that poverty soon overtakes him” -- Benjamin Franklin

Poverty is Not a Statistical Issue, But a Human Issue

"The issue of poverty is not a statistical issue. It is a human issue" -- James Wolfensohn

When The Rich Make War, It's The Poor That Die: Sartre

"When the rich make war, it's the poor that die" -- Jean-Paul Sartre

36 Million Americans Live in Poverty: John Edwards

"I believe it is wrong, in a country of such wealth and prosperity, to have 36 million Americans living in poverty." -- John Edwards

There Was Never a War on Poverty, a Skirmish Maybe

"There was never a war on poverty. Maybe there was a skirmish on poverty" -- Andrew Cuomo

Poverty is Everyone's Problem: Gov. Kathleen Blanco

"Poverty is everyone's problem. It cuts across any line you can name: age, race, social, geographic or religious. Whether you are black or white; rich, middle-class or poor, we are ALL touched by poverty" -- Kathleen Blanco

Poverty Often Deprives a Man of all Spirit & Virtue

"Poverty often deprives a man of all spirit and virtue; it is hard for an empty bag to stand upright" -- Benjamin Franklin

Liberalism means Emancipation From Poverty

"Liberalism, above all, means emancipation - emancipation from one's fears, his inadequacies, from prejudice, from discrimination, from poverty" -- Hubert H. Humphrey

Poverty is Worst of Evils & Strikes Dead Our Souls

"Poverty blights whole cities; spreads horrible pestilences; strikes dead the very souls of all who come within sight, sound, or smell of it" -- George Bernard Shaw

Poverty a Career for Well Paid People: Ronald Reagan

"Poverty is a career for lot's of well paid people" -- Ronald Reagan

From Nothing to Extreme Poverty: Groucho Marx

"I worked my way up from nothing to a state of extreme poverty." -- Groucho Marx

Social Ostracism & Invasion of Privacy: Pain of Poverty

"Poverty is relative, and the lack of food and of the necessities of life is not necessarily a hardship. Spiritual and social ostracism, the invasion of your privacy, are what constitute the pain of poverty" -- Alice Foote MacDougall

Lies About Poverty: Jolly Beggar, Happy Milkmaid...

"Literary tradition is full of lies about poverty—the jolly beggar, the poor but happy milkmaid, the wholesome diet of porridge, etc." -- Mason Cooley

Shakespeare on Beggars & The Rich in King John

"Well, whiles I am a beggar, I will rail,

And say there is no sin but to be rich;

And being rich, my virtue then shall be

To say there is no vice but beggary"

-- Shakespeare: King John